Browsed byCategory: Boat Chef

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! And if you’re in need of an easy appetizer to bring to your celebration, check out this delicious dip and bread I made right here on the boat! It’s a no-knead bread, and it only takes about two and a half hours from start to finish, so you don’t need to be working on it all day.

As for the dip, it’s a throw together and bake kind of recipe. So simple and so delicious. It will be the hit of any party!

Scroll past video to see full recipes. I’ve split them in two so that you can make each independently if you so wish.

Instructions

Bake for about 20 minutes or until tomatoes have expelled their juice and started to brown around the edges.

Pull them out of the oven and set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine all dip ingredients.

Spread dip mix into a small baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes or until edges start to brown.

With about 5 minutes left in your baking time, remove dip, spread tomatoes over the top and finish baking.

If you don’t have a couple of hours, or you simply don’t want to make your own bread, feel free to pick up a baguette or something at the grocery store. Don’t worry, I won’t be offended. But you should try the bread at some point. You won’t be disappointed!

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Boat Baked Bread

You know, like home baked bread...only in a boat? It's amazing. And its simple.

For the topping

Instructions

Add water to a bowl, and sprinkle yeast and sugar on top. Mix gently and let sit for about 5 minutes or until the mixture starts to bubble.

Add salt to the bowl. Mix gently.

Add your flour a little at a time, mixing until combined with each addition.

Once all the flour is in, sprinkle a little extra flour on top of your dough ball, then flip the ball over and sprinkle a little more flour. We do this so the dough doesn't stick to the bowl while it is rising.

Cover the bowl with a dish towel, and let it sit for about an hour or until the dough has about doubled in size.

When the dough is ready, sprinkle a little bit of flour on a cutting board and gently tip the bowl to release the dough onto your board.

Gently fold each side into the center to make the shape of your loaf.

Sprinkle a little more flour on top and gently place your dough into a fresh bowl, seam side down.

Cover with your towel and let rise for another 30-45 minutes.

While your dough is rising, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place your empty stock pot (and lid) in the oven while it heats so it is nice and hot when you put your dough inside.

When your dough is done rising, turn it out onto a sheet of parchment paper so the seam side is now up.

Dust with chopped rosemary, sea salt and garlic.

Very carefully remove your hot pot from the oven and place your dough with the parchment paper into it.

Replace the lid and carefully put the pot back into the oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

At the 30 min mark, remove the lid of the pot and allow to cook for another 10-20 minutes or until your crust is crunchy and starting to brown.

Remove from the oven and place on cutting board or cooling rack. Let cool slightly (but not all the way!) before serving.

Enjoy with your baked ricotta dip or with a simple smearing of butter.

Recipe Notes

The original recipe used a dutch oven for this bread. I don't have one, which is why I used the stock pot. I believe any covered pot will work just fine as it is the steam inside that gives the bread its nice crunchy crust.

If you have an oven with a lower heating element like ours (as opposed to one at the top of the oven), you may need to take the bread out of the pot, move your rack up and bake the last 10-20 minutes on an upside down cookie sheet to avoid burning the bottom. Your crust will also be a little less brown (like ours in the photo).

Have you ever baked bread on your boat before? Or in your house? I’d never made it until I moved onto the boat, and I think I’m hooked!

Recipe Notes

When I moved into my first apartment as an adult, I lived next door to the cutest family ever. David and Danielle had just brought Daisy home a few months earlier, and they welcomed me to the neighborhood with open arms. Over the course of the next few years, I got to be a part of their family, and when they bought their first home and moved out of the apartment, I would spend Thursday evenings at their house watching American Idol and eating enchiladas.

This is the recipe I made on those Thursday nights (with the addition of the tofu…), and every time I eat it, I am brought back to those cozy nights on their couch, laughing and making bets on who would win it all.

Instructions

When onion is done, add onion, zucchini, black beans and corn to the tofu bowl.

Pour a little bit of enchilada sauce in the bottom of your pan and spread it around till the bottom is coated.

Lightly fry tortillas in olive oil. Coat each side with enchilada sauce. Set tortilla in the pan.

Add a scoop of veggie mixture and a sprinkle of cheese. Roll enchilada. Repeat until your pan is full. Pour remaining sauce on top of enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbles at the edges.

Repeat until your pan is full. Pour remaining sauce on top of enchiladas. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbles at the edges.

Recipe Notes

You will probably end up with some extra filling. It mixes really well into scrambled eggs for breakfast tacos in the morning!

Fall has officially arrived in the Pacific Northwest! The trees are turning a million shades of orange, yellow and red and that nip has returned to the air. Sunshine feels fabulous on my cheeks, and I find myself constantly in the mood for something pumpkin.

If you’re feeling like me right now, this is the perfect recipe for you!

Fall has officially arrived! And colder weather calls for hot, delicious breakfasts to warm us from the inside. This recipe is so easy to make and it’s almost always a hit. We like to make individual-sized stacks, but you can totally do this in a full-sized spring form pan and serve it to a crowd as well. We top ours with a couple of fried eggs, but the sky is the limit when it comes to accompaniments.

As soon as the weather gets cold, I start craving soup. Soup is such a cozy, comforting dish to warm your tummy. And while chili is technically not soup, it has the same warming properties and it sounded good on this cold Pacific Northwest fall day.

When we started looking into moving aboard last year about this time, we came across a YouTube channel called Sailing Selkie. It was a young couple who were making the transition from living in an apartment to living on a sailboat in the Seattle area. We watched their videos over and over. They were doing exactly what we were working toward! In one of their episodes, they made a delicious looking pot of soup in a Wonderbag and we immediately added it to our list of needed boat items. Sadly, Sailing Selkie is no more, but we had to credit them with our discovery of this awesome slow cooker that requires no electricity.

This chili recipe will work in any slow cooker (or even just on the stovetop if you prefer!), but it was perfect for our Wonderbag.

Scroll past the video for the full recipe.

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Tummy-Warming Veggie Chili

Veggie chili to warm your tummy made in a Wonderbag or other slow cooker

Prep Time15minutes

Cook Time4hours

Total Time4hours15minutes

Servings12servings

Authorlifeatsixknots

Ingredients

1tbspbutter

1largeonionchopped

2 largecarrotschopped

1medsweet potatochopped

2-3jalapenoschopped

2medzucchinischopped

1bagfrozen corn

2-3clovesfresh garlicchopped

1/2tspcumin

1/2tsppaprika

salt and pepper to taste

1/2tspred pepper flakes (or chili powder)

1can kidney beansdrained

1cannavy beansdrained

2canswhite beans (Great Northern)drained

2canspinto beansdrained

1cantomato paste

1can petite chopped tomatoes

1canfire roasted chopped tomatoes

1canGuiness draught beeror other dark beer

Instructions

Melt butter in a pan. Add onions.

Add sweet potato, carrots, jalapenos to the pan and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe Notes

If you are using a regular slow cooker, simply put all your ingredients into the slow cooker, mix well and cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 8-9 hours.

If you are planning to leave your boat while your chili cooks, you can add the corn and zucchini with your beans and tomatoes. We just like them a little less soft, but they will be fine cooking the full amount of time.

What are your favorite chili toppings? Let us know if you try this recipe and what you think!

While neither Jim nor I have problems with gluten, I did suffer from a wheat allergy for a while and spent a good deal of time experimenting with gluten free baking. When we moved up to Washington, we found we had a few friends who suffered from gluten allergies, and since I find great joy in spreading love through baked goods, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try out Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour.

It’s an awesome product, and it is literally a 1-to-1 replacement for regular wheat flour, so it’s the simplest way to make baked goods gluten free that I have found. And it has a surprisingly pleasant texture. So many of the recipes I used to make were dense and cardboard-like. This flour gives cookies and breads a nice, soft, chewy texture that is quite close to it’s wheat-based counterpart.

Scroll past the video for the full recipe. And if you give it a try, let us know what you think!

Whenever we are invited to a party, people ask us to bring this dip. Jim loves with with tortilla chips, while I prefer it with a sliced and lightly toasted baguette, but it is delicious on almost anything you put it on. You can take our word for that because we’ve used it to top fish tacos, baked salmon, crab cakes (you can find our recipe here!), burgers, and mixed with macaroni and cheese. And if you try it and come up with your own unique uses, please let us know!

Scroll past the video to see the full recipe.

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Hoppin' Jalapeno Popper Dip

This dip will be the hit on any party you bring it to and pairs well with either tortilla chips or a toasted sliced baguette.

Welcome to the first episode of our new series, Boat Chef! One of the questions we are asked most about our liveaboard lifestyle is whether or not we cook on the boat.

When we moved aboard, I promised myself I wouldn’t let the size of my galley prevent me from cooking exactly what I wanted when I wanted to. Last December I baked Christmas cookies aboard, and on St. Patrick’s Day I made Jim and our neighbor, Skip, a corned beef with all the veggies (I get double credit on that one since I don’t even eat corned beef!). I’ve made risotto while underway and handfuls of lunches on a heel.

I’ve always enjoyed cooking and I’d like to think I’m pretty good at it, so I am starting this series to share with you some of the recipes and dishes I prepare in my tiny galley.

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! I have decided to start a little series called Boat Chef in which I prove, for all of you doubters, that anything I can cook on land, I can also cook on a boat!

This first one might be cheating a little bit because it’s so dang simple, but I’ve got to set the bar low to start, right? I’m not going to start with chicken cordon bleu (Let’s be honest. I’m not going to cook that anyway. I don’t even eat chicken!). It’ll only go downhill from there.

Today I made cherry chocolate bark in celebration of Valentine’s Day. I figure most of it will be shared with new friends we’ve made around the marina. And Jim will probably eat a fair amount himself. As I said, it’s the easiest thing to make and you don’t even really have to measure ingredients.

Valentine’s Day Cherry Chocolate Bark

1 package chocolate chips

1 package vanilla candy coating (almond bark)

vanilla extract

Maraschino cherries (chopped)

Maraschino cherry juice

Melt chocolate chips in a pan or microwave. We live on a boat, and propane is more plentiful than electricity, so I used a pan. Whatever you do, just make sure you stir a lot and don’t burn it. Don’t ever leave it alone. Once the chocolate is melted, spread it over a piece of parchment paper as evenly as possible.

This is the hard part. Now you wait. That layer of chocolate needs to be cool and firm before you add the next layer or else you’ll have a swirly marbly mess. Maybe that’s what you’re going for, and that might be just as delicious and pretty looking, but I’m sharing this thing my way. Feel free to take your own path (and let me know how it goes!).

Next we melt the candy coating (almond bark). I used the entire brick pictured. It seemed like the right amount for the amount of chocolate chips I had. Basically you want a 1:1 ratio of chocolate and candy coating. Again, don’t leave the pan while you’re melting because if you burn it, it is ruined. From here you will add about 1 tsp of vanilla extract and a few tbsp of Maraschino cherry juice as well as the chopped cherries. As far as I’m concerned, the more juice the merrier. It will make your cherry flavor more pronounced.

So from here, things didn’t go the way I had anticipated and the candy got a little clumpy. I was pretty sure I’d ruined the whole thing, but I slathered the white/cherry layer on top of the chocolate chip layer and spread it as evenly as I could (that’s the next step, by the way). Then I cut another sheet of parchment paper and set it on top so I could smooth out and flatten it a little bit. It was not pretty at this point. If yours looks like a mess, it’s okay. It will get better. I promise!

See? Kinda gross looking, right? But when it is done, it looks all pretty and more like something you’d want to eat and less like pink cottage cheese.

Make sure that it is all completely cooled. I’d even give it a few minutes in the fridge to be sure. Then break it up into pieces of your desired size and enjoy!

Fun, right? Let me know if you try it out and how it goes for you. Jim thought it was delicious and he’s hesitant to share it with the new friends I mentioned.

Cheers!

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